Rethink LA at the Architecture and Design Museum

4 August - 4 September '11

Los Angeles

Rethink LA, a collaboration of forward- thinking volunteers in the Los Angeles architecture, planning, motion graphics and design community, are exhibiting August 4 - September 4 2011 at the A+D Museum.

Entitled Rethink LA: Perspectives on a Future City, the interactive exhibit uses photographs and the technique of photomontage, alongside visual and audio narrations, and interactive installations to examine Los Angeles in the past, in the present, and projected forward fifty years to a post-oil future. Starting from the theory that Los Angeles undergoes a major shift every 50 years, the exhibition proposes that the next shift will start with the decisions made today; resulting in a reality that is portrayed by a range of invited local and global contributors.

Understanding that real change starts with a clear vision, the group hopes to inspire Americans to look beyond the paradigm of cities planned and reliant on an abundance of space, time, and consumable resources to a world transitioning to a new and, by necessity, sustainable future.

from the exhibition text:

Los Angeles is the personification of our suburban nation, and this archetype is both celebrated and condemned for how it has shaped American society. It is now 55 years after the Federal Highway Act changed the American national landscape, and 50 years after the dismantling of Pacific Electric Railway changed the American metropolis. Once deemed the city of the future, LA is on the precipice of a new epoch. A sea change in demographics, cultural allegiances, and lifestyles are beginning to shift our collective decisions in terms of the way we will live, work, play and travel. Like our predecessors, what grand decisions can we make right now to construct our shared future?

RETHINK/LA presents a series of visions based on both the stark environmental realities of the present and the optimistic possibilities for the future. This exhibit explores the effects on our city by framing the questions:

What does our future look like?

Where are we going and how will we get there?

Will we choose the status quo or seek a better more sustainable Los Angeles?

Perspectives on a Future Cityfast-forwards 50 years to illustrate a new American dream.